BSN Exclusive: Rockies young core confidently declares "We're back!"

DENVER – The Colorado Rockies have never come into a season with the kind of expectations they – and just about everyone else – placed on themselves coming into the 2019 season.

This is one of the many reasons why an eight-game losing streak, more or less out of the gate, became so magnified outside the clubhouse.

Inside of it, though? There was never any panic. There was only a belief in the underlying talent and an understanding of what this team is capable of when at full strength.

As the injuries began to mount, Colorado couldn’t find traction and suddenly found themselves losing games as players who weren’t quite ready for MLB were forced into some key at-bats.

But one of the players who was thrust into a bigger role, Garrett Hampson, took that opportunity to figure out why he hadn’t been making the most of his chances and what he needed to do in order to once again find himself.

This transition is symbolic of where the entire team is at this point in the season.

“I just wasn’t on time which was causing me to not recognize some pitches and be late,” Hampson told BSN Denver in relation to his early struggles coming just before he broke out with a seven-game hitting streak.

“So I went back and looked at some old video and with the help of the hitting coaches realize it was just a matter of starting a bit earlier. I feel like I’m back now I’m back to myself. I know the numbers aren’t good right now but I’m not worried about that I feel good at the plate.”

He, like everyone else, admits that it is only human to look at some of those ugly numbers and despair but knows that patience is a virtue. “It’s hard not to look at [bad stats] when it’s kind of right in your face at the same time and hasn’t even been a month yet.”

Right as Hampson was getting it together, the club was able to bring Ryan McMahon and David Dahl back, prompting a huge boost in confidence.

“They are huge,” Hampson says. “They stretch out our lineup. Getting one back is huge but getting both back at the same time? And we’re getting Murphy here pretty soon? We’re back.  We are a confident team like we’ve said all season and I think we are gonna string together some wins now.”

Starting pitcher Kyle Freeland could not agree more. “Once you start getting a little bit of momentum it’s easy to feed off of from an offense of standpoint a defense of standpoint and pitching. It’s nice to have them back in the lineup especially while our pitching is rolling now we’re starting to put runs up early on the board. It’s energy that you can easily feed off.”

Dahl himself says he was excited to return but doesn’t see himself as some kind of cure-all for the offense, saying: “I’d like to think that but we are a good team and we know it and when we get everybody back we will be even better.”

As far as his first game back?

“It felt good. I was happy with my at-bats but I didn’t like the ground balls… but as far as swinging at strikes and being on time I felt good. I felt like I could pick up right where I left off.”

Trevor Story sees what everyone else does but also knows that now is no time to become too comfortable or too confident.

“Those guys are a huge part of our team and it showed [in the first game against the Phillies] how important they are.”

But, he says, you can’t fool yourself into thinking you’ve turned the page, you have to keep searching for ways to get better, even after nights when you hit 459 foot home runs. “You try to never let yourself think like that,” he says. “You have to build and build throughout the year. As soon as you think ‘I’ve got this figured out’ that’s when this game humbles you.”

Right now, though, everything is trending in the right direction for the lineup.

“We’re building offensive consistency and we feel good right now,” says Story. “We’re just gonna try to keep it going.”